The start of this season has been anything but as expected. Most pundits, at worst, had us 2-2 right now. I know I had us 4-0 at this point in the season and sitting pretty atop the division. I could not have been more wrong. It's true, we've lost 3 games to teams that are a combined 11-1. It's true that are 3 losses are by an average 5.67 points. It's true that we have been hammered by injuries this year after 3 straight years of remaining relatively injury free. However, there is something greater wrong with these Falcons right now.

End of the First, Start of the Problems

It's no secret that the Falcons are a team that wants to come out and score fast. We typically will game plan a large portion of our early plays so we know exactly what we plan to do. So far, that has worked in the first quarter this season. In the first, the Falcons have out gained their opponents 468 yards to 198 yards, and outscored their opponents 34-0. It's nice to get staked to an early lead, but the problem has been hanging on to that lead once the 1st quarter end.

In the 2nd through 4th quarter this season, the Falcons have been outscored in each quarter and out gained in the 2nd and 3rd.

2nd Quarter: 344 yards to 463 yards, 23 points to 36 points.

3rd Quarter: 150 yards to 370 yards, 14 points to 27 points.

4th Quarter: 570 yards to 499 yards, 23 points to 41 points.

Worse yet, 40% of the Falcons 4th quarter yardage (230 yards) came in a late rally in an attempt to catch the Patriots this past Sunday. For me, one thing is very clear with this, the Falcons coaches fail to make in game adjustments and thus the Falcons offense stalls and the defense is a step behind the opposing offense. The solution to this might seem simple: adjust playing calling as the game goes on, but we have seen that this coaching staff has issues with adjusting their play calling.

Suggestions: On offense, I believe we need to let Matt Ryan come out in the 3rd quarter in the No Huddle. It is clear the Falcons are better in the no huddle, and it would be difficult to be much worse than we have been in the 3rd. On defense things are a little more tricky. The defense seems to rarely audible and often begins to look tired as the game wears on. I realize our depth is already thin, but I would suggest trying to get a few more rotational substitutions in the game. Also, I think Nolan needs to make better use of the skills of his players, switching around between 4-3, 3-4, and Nickel looks as the game goes onto keep the offense guessing where the 4th or 5th man will be coming from. Finally, this one is for our Pro-Bowl safeties: If you are supposed to be covering a receiver in man coverage, don't give them 10 yards of space. The opposing team will gladly take 5-7 yard chunks all the way down the field.

Red Zone Inefficiency

The Atlanta Falcons Offense has reached the Red Zone a whopping 18 times in their first 4 games, most in the NFL. The problem for the Falcons is not moving the ball between the 20s, but rather getting the ball into the end zone. In 18 Red Zone trips, the Falcons have come away with just 7 TDs and 6 FGs, meaning that the Falcons have reached the Red Zone and failed to score 5 times.

By contrast, the Falcons defense has allowed 13 Red Zone trips this season, allowing a total of 9 TDs and 4 FGs. More telling, however, is that opposing teams have managed to score at least some point in each red zone trip this season against the Falcons defense.

Overall, despite the Falcons having 5 more Red Zone trips than their competition, they have actually managed to score 8 fewer points in the Red Zone.

Suggestion: This might seem elementary, but when the Falcons reach the Red Zone, they need to run the football. This season, Ryan has a passer rating of 78.0 in the Red Zone, going 15 of 35 for 94 yards, 6 TDs and 1 INT. By contrast, the Falcons have run the ball just 12 times in the Red Zone for 29 yards and 1 TD. 25.5% rushing attempts in the Red Zone is going to lead to a low efficiency rate. Plain and simple, the Falcons need to run the ball more in the red zone. On defense, my main suggestion would be to go to 5 down linemen in the Red Zone, 2 LBs, and 4 DBs. This would help slow down the opposing teams rushing attack, as well as leave enough men in coverage to stop the pass. Also, for God's sake don't put a LB on a speedy receiver and do not let Stephen Nicholas anywhere near the field unless every other linebacker is hurt.

These are two of the main areas of concern for the Falcons, and though we have other problems, I believe fixing these areas will go a long way in improving the Falcons as a whole.

It doesn't help that our offensive tackles are rated as the worst in the league. Ryan has done a lot with having to handle that pressure. It's amazing to see how many times we've been in the red zone as well. It shows that what we are doing is working up until the field is compressed.

I don't think the coaches have trusted the running game. But without trying it they will never know. We seemed to run fine against the dolphins and then decided to start passing again. Why we can't keep doing what works is beyond me. Same can be said for the no huddle offense against NE.

Even with the injuries we really aren't doing that bad. Our whole outlook on this season would be different if we didn't have 4 miscues on the goal line.

Good analysis. The most frustrating thing for me is the perceived stubbornness of the staff. I mean they know a hell of a lot more than I do, but it just seems like when something is not working and you just keep trying the same thing, I'd love to know the reasoning because that just seems plain dumb.

Quizz and Snelling are not very good and this is a big part of our problem. They are slow as fuck. And combine that with our below average OL, and it's just a really bad formula. The only reason we have a good running play here and there is because defenses are just forced sometimes to play the pass against us and just can't stack the box or they'll get burnt bad by 1 on 1 mismatches vs. our receiving corps.

If we had shitty receivers, holy crap I can't imagine how few yards rushing we'd have. I thought Quizz would be something outstanding, but he simply isn't. That one play last year against Seattle was proof that he will NEVER break one open in the middle of the field and run away for a TD. Yes, it was an awesome run. Watching him run over Sherman was the highlight of the entire season for me. But he had open field and was EASILY run down. I mean it took zero effort for their defense to catch up to him and tackle him. He has no chance of running a kick return back or an open field breakaway TD.

And Snelling is the epitome of average. He can't cut. He's slow as hell. He can catch and run routes and he falls forward when he's tackled and that's about it.

I honestly think that the fire in our team seems to have been slow in stoking. I think they all really got burned out last year, and failed to wake early on. I mean, they worked so hard last year and came so close... I think that took more from them than we thought. They seem to be walking through it just like the NY Giants did... they expected to get to the playoffs, and just assumed their place, not caring how or when. They seemed to believe they will just pull it out late, and have been in a daze. The normal vocal leaders, Roddy and Spoon and Asante, have been injured, TG came late, SJax and Kroy got hurt, the lines changed a lot, and Ryan came off an injury in the offseason, making me wonder where the fire will come from. There is a lot of youth on this team, remember.

If they come out with fire next week, hopefully it will show they have awaken. If they come out flat, even with a win, it may signal bigger problems.

I don't know how much blame you can toss on our running backs when we literally have the two worst tackles in football per PFF and the eye test backs it up. Our O-line lost any small bit of mean and nasty when they let Dahl walk as a free agent and cutting Clabo was an idiotic decision.

As I have said before either TD has no clue how to draft for offensive and defensive lines or the coaching staff for those positions are not getting the job done. If you look at our draft record the past few years we have in fact drafted both sides of the line high and we have yet to produce a single impact player on either side in all that time.

how many of those high round line drafts were reaches though? I know holmes was definitely a reach. pulling the trade to move back to the first for baker made him a reach, of course I know hindsight is 20/20. The opposite side of that was Peters, whom we all thought was a reach at the time, but has proved most of the time that he wasn't.....who am I forgetting? maybe Holmes is the most apparent right now because of the problems we have.

I don't include mike johnson in that, because he was a tremendous guard at alabama, too bad he just can't stay healthy, though getting a leg broke isn't really a health issue, is it?